HC Deb 15 July 1963 vol 681 cc26-7
25. Mr. Shinwell

asked the Lord Privy Seal on how many occasions in the last 10 years the Foreign Office has asked British newspapers to find employment for ex-officials of that Department.

Mr. Heath

Full records are not kept of approaches made by the Foreign Office to outside employers on behalf of former employees. But the Foreign Office always tries to help former members of the Service, who have retired or resigned, to find jobs for which they appear to be suitably qualified.

Mr. Shinwell

Is it not most unusual for the Foreign Office to seek employment for an ex-official of the Department who has beer at one time or another under suspicion, to put it no higher than that? Can the right hon. Gentleman inform the House who was the Foreign Office official who approached the Observer in order to try to obtain employment for Mr. Philby?

Mr. Heath

I dealt last week with the case which the right hon. Gentleman is raising. As for the general matters to which his Question refers, I should have thought that it was not unusual but only the work of any good employer to try to help people in those circumstances.

Dame Irene Ward

May I ask my right hon. Friend whether, if we are to have this question perpetually from the other side of the House, he could please inform me on whose authority Burgess became established in the Foreign Office at the time of the Labour Government?

Mr. Speaker

That question is again hypothetical.

Dame Irene Ward

On a point of order. It is not hypothetical at all.

Mr. Speaker

I am sorry to differ from the hon. Lady, as at all times, but a proposition beginning, "If we are to have this question—"appears to me to be hypothetical.

Mr. Shinwell

The right hon. Gentleman has just informed the House that he dealt with one aspect of my Question last week, but he did not tell the House who was the Foreign Office official who approached the Observer to obtain employment for Mr. Philby. Can we now be informed?

Mr. Heath

No, Sir. I do not think that it would be appropriate for me to tell the House of Commons the name of a particular official dealing with matters in the Foreign Office. This was dealt with through the usual channels.